The Oxford Partnership has reported strong regional sales on what has traditionally become known as “Mad Friday”.
Whilst overall sales were marginally down versus the same day last year, the drop was not as dramatic as had been expected.
A total of 10.9 million pints were sold as party goers started to get in the festive spirit ahead of the holidays.
The average pub served 289 pints of draught beer and cider which is a marginal drop of -1.8% versus the same day last year. This generated a not insubstantial £1,440 for pubs on Friday night. However, our data tells an even more interesting story about regionality of sales performance.
The North of England performed the strongest with the North East up a whopping +14.4% and the North West also up by +8%.
London too had a strong night with sales up +6.1% versus 2023 and the South West delivered a decent performance with a sales uplift of +3.6%.
This was in sharp contrast to Scotland which was down a heavy -9.7%, with Wales down -9.6% and the West Midlands down -9.9%.
The big beer and cider category winners on Mad Friday were Stout – which was up a huge +19% – and Apple Cider up +5%, with World Lager also having a decent night with a sales uplift of +2.8%.
The much talked about Guinness shortage clearly impacted some pubs but not enough to damage the sales of the black stuff overall as we see that across the course of Mad Friday, Stout took an enormous 17.4% share of sales, which is one of its highest-ever share of category performances.
On the flip side Craft dropped by -16.5% as did Flavoured Cider by -12% – both down sharply versus the same day last year. Core Lager was also down -8.2% and World 4% down -6.4% – both performing below last year’s levels.
Across the board, Mad Friday delivered strong results for the UK On Trade, despite an anticipated damp squib.
“We had all been hoping to see strong results for the On Trade in the run up to Christmas and despite a very marginal drop year on year, our data demonstrates a hopeful festive season for draught sales,” comments Alison Jordan, Chief Executive Officer of the Oxford Partnership.
